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What We’re Reading

By The New York Times July 3, 2012 9:59 amJuly 3, 2012 9:59 am

Julien Jourdes for The New York Times

The San Francisco Chronicle: If opening and serving a $50 bottle of wine and a $500 bottle of wine in a restaurant requires the same amount of effort, why should anyone tip the same rate, 20 percent, of the price? Have a seat, my friends, and let Jon Bonné explain the facts of restaurant life to you. — Eric Asimov

Herbivoracious: Wait. You might be able to make butter from Corn Nuts? Awesome. — Jeff Gordinier

The New York Post: The Restaurant Opportunities Center, an advocacy group that has protested outside several big-name restaurants in New York City, accusing them of cheating employees out of wages and tips, is itself under scrutiny by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. That’s the panel headed by Representative Darrell Issa, a California Republican who says ROC “repeatedly harassed” Mario Batali’s Del Posto and other places. — Patrick Farrell

Bloomberg Businessweek: The $500 billion, 1,000-page farm bill explained. It’s all adversarial: North against South, big states against small. And the new bill is set to send $11 billion in subsidies to farmers who are expecting profits of $91.7 billion, according to the Department of Agriculture. – Glenn Collins

Condé Nast Traveler: “Why have gastronomes traditionally headed to the Mediterranean?” asks the writer Raphael Kadushin in a piece that looks at the food of the frigid North instead of the balmy South. “Because birch sap, musk ox, Arctic bramble, beetroot and herring (even, or especially, herring served 25 different ways) are a tougher sell than olive oil, foie gras and Valencia oranges.” In spite of all that, Sweden is suddenly a very hot place to eat. — Jeff Gordinier

Grub Street: Coals to Newcastle Dept.: Rome is smitten with its new branch of Eataly, the Italian-food Colosseum started in New York by Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich. — Patrick Farrell

The Wall Street Journal: A portrait of the Cape Town, South Africa, chef Reuben Riffel, 37, who grew up in a segregated neighborhood and didn’t eat in a restaurant until he was 15. In his three restaurants he has reinvented the traditional stews and meat pies of his childhood, adding dishes like grainy mustard-glazed ostrich steak with soft polenta. – Glenn Collins

The Washington Post: “Sauternes is sweet in the same way that ‘Moby Dick’ is a sea story.” Jason Wilson on why the wine deserves more respect and understanding. — Eric Asimov

Details: The snake is out: Christopher Ross digs up some cool, boozy slang from the drunk old days. — Jeff Gordinier

Vintana Wine + Dine: Only in Escondido? A new blend of luxury cars and fine dining, Vintana is a 38,000-square-foot restaurant on the top floor of a Lexus dealership. — Julia Moskin

The Economist: It seems that Knorr Stock Pot, a bouillon jelly developed for Chinese consumers, has been embraced in Britain, continental Europe and Turkey, thanks to the nimble marketing of Unilever. And in the eternal galactic battle between Unilever and Procter & Gamble, Unilever has found an advantage in incorporating 500,000 small farmers in developing countries into its global supply chain to ensure produce supplies. –Glenn Collins

The Washington Post: In all the furor over obesity, they’ve been largely ignored — the people who stay thin no matter how much they eat. Now researchers are including them in studies, to figure out why they don’t get fat. — Patrick Farrell